The economic and environmental cost of generating and distributing power to power customers is enormous. Even a small percentage reduction in power consumption translates to an enormous financial savings and reduced emissions.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional power grid 1110. Power is conducted from the substation 14 to one or more distribution transformers 60 over one or more medium voltage (MV) power lines 20. Power is conducted from the distribution transformer 60 to the customer premises 40 via one or more low voltage (LV) power lines 61 (typically carrying 120-240 volts in the US). Customer premises 40 include a low voltage premises network 55 that provides power to individual power outlets within the customer premises 40.
While FIG. 1 depicts only a single customer premises 40, in practice MV power lines 10 extend for considerable distances and provide power to numerous residential and business customers. The voltage supplied to those power customers that are farthest from the substation may be considerably less than the voltage supplied to power customers that are near the substation because of losses caused by the power distribution system. During power distribution, the voltage supplied to the medium voltage power line 10 by the substation 14 must be maintained so that the voltage at all the customer premises satisfies regulatory requirements. Utilities typically must make an educated “guess” as to the voltage required to be supplied by the substation 14 based on an estimated voltage drop to the power customers receiving the lowest voltages. The voltage supplied by the substation is regulated (i.e., controlled) according to this estimated voltage drop.
In addition, an engineering margin must be added to the estimated voltage to be delivered to the power customers due to the uncertainty of the losses of various components of the power grid 1110 such as, for example, transformer losses and power line losses. Thus, a voltage provided by a substation 14 may be regulated based on an educated “guess” of the voltage drop plus an added voltage to provide a margin of error. Regulating a voltage based on an educated “guess” and a margin of error often results in the utility providing a voltage that is higher than required by regulatory requirements, which in some instances causes a greater than necessary delivery of power. Currently, there is no cost efficient means for an electric utility to accurately determine the precise voltage to be supplied by a substation 14 to provide a desired voltage at a customer premises. These and other advantages are provided by various embodiments of the present invention.